Tabloids and Jewelry

Unless you live under a rock, you have heard that The Bachelorette (Kaitlyn Bristowe) was proposed to and accepted her proposal last night (from Shawn Booth). Congratulations to the happy couple – I hope that you beat the odds!

I’m going to go on a mini rant for a minute:

One of the problems with tabloid magazines talking about jewelry is that they never report how many carats the setting is vs. how many carats the center stone is. All of the tabloids are reporting that Kaitlyn’s ring is 3.5cts. Now, knowing what I know, her particular setting probably has about a carat or so of diamonds on the setting itself, not counting the center stone.

So it could be 2.5ct center stone with a carat of little diamonds (often called melee or pave) for a total of 3.5 carats, or it could be a 3.5ct center with a carat of little diamonds for a total of 4.5 carats. I’m guessing, that it’s actually a 3.5 total carat weight, with a 2.5ct or so center.

Any tabloid reporting on jewelry is essentially worthless when no one actually defines where the carat weight is coming from! And it makes me crazy. I guarantee you that someone at Neil Lane knows exactly what the carat weight of the center and the setting is.

My issue is that this is giving the public unrealistic ideas of anything about jewelry! Unfortunately with this kind of misinformation that’s out there, it further confuses the public and no one benefits from unrealistic expectations when it comes to jewelry.

And this is only applicable when the tabloids get the information about the jewelry right. Don’t get me started on that topic. At least People had a Neil Lane press release to rely on, is all I’m going to say on that particular topic.

Sidenote: Why does Neil Lane insist on using those over photoshopped images of his jewelry? They end up looking more like a lifeless drawing than something that is full of sparkle and fire!